


I'm Fine

by PrinnyRamza



Category: Twelve Forever (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Hopeful Ending, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Rejection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21822943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrinnyRamza/pseuds/PrinnyRamza
Summary: Reggie isn't really fine.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 34





	I'm Fine

Reggie screamed. 

Todd might've found this worrisome if this had been the first time, but he had become a bit accustomed to the pattern. He couldn't say the same for Esther who was currently in the middle of trying to hold back the redhead from bludgeoning herself with the torn out stump of a gummy bear tree. 

This wasn't the first time that Reggie used the island of Endless to let out some steam, but Todd had to admit that this was a bit more intense then how it usually went. 

It was also going on much longer than it usually did. Time moved weird in endless, so he couldn't say exactly how much time had passed but Reggie's wrath seemed to be have been burning for at least a hypothetical hour. 

He was concerned, yes, but after all that time, all he could do was drink a smoothie by the shore and watch as one of his best friends try to stop the very real possibility of another of his best friends digging into the sand and burying themselves there indefinitely. 

It was to the point that when one of little guys, Pretty Please walked on by and asked “Hey what is Twelve doing?”, all he could do in turn was shrug, “Don’t know.” 

It was rare for Reggie to not tell anyone what made her upset. Rare, as in it hasn’t happened before. She was usually very open about everything, but in this case she shot right into endless screaming, refusing to communicate with any sound that would resemble an actually word. She then proceeded to punch sand hard enough to turn it into glass only to teleport back home when he and Esther ran over calm her down.

They shrugged for a moment only for her to pop up again at the warp and cause untold, but ultimately harmless destruction in another sector of the island. This cycle of ambush, atomize and abscond continued for some time until Todd got bored and left Esther on Reggiewatch.

He cared for his friend, really, but if he wanted to spend his day stopping girls from killing themselves he would be home babysitting the Jennifers. 

The space themed girl was actually able to get the hold of her when the red head burst into rainbow color daggers of light signaling that she had once again retreated back to reality.

Todd took a sip from his smoothie. It was coconut. Delicious.

Esther looked like she was about to kill over. Her heart was ready to burst. She had her arms deadlock, pushing against her knees to keep her standing.

“Good job” Todd gave her a thumbs up from his place on the beach, “You almost had her.”

Esther gave him a different finger. An abnormally gutsy move by the normally meek girl. 

Reggie was sober enough to wait until she was hovering over her bed to kill over. She was relaxed now. 

Maybe she had released all that tension in that last spasm.

Maybe after all that she can just sink down in her mattress, allow it to swallow her.

Maybe, just maybe she was a big dumb idiot. 

Why did she do that?

Why did she do that?

She grabbed her pillow. Her grip was so tight that she could feel her nails poking against her palm. She howled a painful grunt that sounded more at home from a wounded animal's mawl then a small girl's.

She yanked out her key with the same viciousness that she had the last dozen times she had done so that day. Reggie lifted it up, punching the air above her. Pink clouds caked over her. When she was completely covered they shattered and she disappeared along with them

They were back seconds later.

Reggie once again stood in her room. 

She took about two steps before falling dead on her bed, coming to life only to once again dig her mug into her pillow.

She was good. 

She was all yelled out. 

She was just tired.

She was over it. 

She was an incredible moron. 

She just wanted the earth to swallow her alive.

She was so stupid.

She was-

Reggie's ear twitched.

There was someone on the other side of her door. Just standing there. She heard what she could only assume was a finger tracing against the wood. There was an obvious shadow trying to enter the threshold. 

Reggie stared at it. It wasn't too long before whoever the shade before to started knocking on her door.

"Reggie." Her mother cracked the door. Her voice was soft. "You've been awful quiet. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She was obligated to say. It didn't sound convincing. It didn't sound like much of anything considering most of her words were absorbed by her pillow.

Mrs Abbott understand her anyway and moved her hand from the door, but didn't do much else. After a long time she just sighed, "Well," she pinched one of her palms. "If you want to talk," she began.

"I'm fine." Reggie said much louder. Her squeaks somehow transmogrifying into a roar. 

Judy looked like she wanted to say something. There was a flash of annoyance on her face, but she didn't respond with any snark or anger, but with a firm "I'm here." 

With purposeful slow movement, as if to give her daughter time to change her mind, the mother close the door once again to give her privacy.

Reggie wished she had changed her mind by the time she could hear her mom's faded footsteps.

Her bookbag started to buzz and she knew exactly why. 

She wanted to rip her phone out and show her mom exactly what was wrong. The kid almost went through with it, but she only able to pull her phone out before her energy was spent and she flopped on the bed once more.

She didn't want to know who it was. 

Reggie wanted to chuck the entire thing, which was why she was waking her phone up and unlocking the screen.

The first message "I'm sorry."

She already hated this. It was just what she needed. Confirmation. 

The next message read, "I could make a whole bunch of excuses, but you probably don't want to hear any of that. You're like really cool." It had a frowny face at the end. Either placed there as a way to ease the tension or a misguided way to show regret. 

Why was she even reading this. She went over the moment at least a dozen times before. What was said wasn't going to change.

"I just don't feel the same way."

Judy Abbott let her daughter call in sick in the morning. It was a Friday anyway and it wasn't as if her daughter never used a cold to try getting out of class. This time Reggie didn't even seem to have the energy to pretend to be dying. 

There was just an apathetic "I'm sick," when she went to check on her.

When there wasn't even a fake cough to backup the ruse, Judy knew it was bad. 

Seeing Reggie in this mood, leaving her home so she could go to work felt almost like a punishment. Made her wish she could call in sick too. 

Judy whipped up some oatmeal for her daughter. She thought about waffles but figured that she should make something that Reggie wouldn't mind letting get cold in case she didn't feel like eating.

She could hope that maybe Reggie would too bored to be miserable and pop out of her room by the time she got back home.

She didn't. 

The oatmeal had a couple globs missing from it, and Judy had to imagined that Reggie left the room for a bathroom break at least once, but that night she was in the same spot she had been in the morning. 

Judy cracked open the door and called to her. "Reggie?"

Her daughter rolled over. She was asleep or at least pretending to be. She still sounded miserable either way.

Saturday Reggie actually moved a little bit. It was progress even if she looked lost no matter where she wandered. 

Reggie had even watched a bit of tv. Judy let the girl have the remote. She wasn't especially excited about the privilege. Didn't change the channel. Still. Judy brought a girl a blanket and pillow and made sure she was comfortable as they sat together in silence until dinner.

Sunday.

Sunday was awkward. Judy had to ask her daughter a favor. 

She paused as soon as the phone call came to her. She paused again as soon as she got to her daughter spawled back on her bed.

Reggie gave her a look, not of annoyance. Annoyance seem to take more energy then she had. It was a glance that simply acknowledged that she entered the room. 

"Hey Reggie." Judy tried to sound gentle. She ended up irking herself with the resulting facade. "So Reggie, a friend is coming over."

Nothing but blank stares.

The mother continued as if the child had given a standing ovation. "Kendra. You know my boss' daughter."

Judy didn't mean to make that certain detail sound so important, but at that moment it was. "She wants to hang out. Isn't that exciting." 

There was an internal cringe as she realize that for a moment she was talking to her twelve year old as if she was six.

Turns out that Reggie did have it in her to at least glare at her old lady.

"Yay. New friends." Judy said in a mock cheer. She shook her arms trying to make herself look giddy. Her grin was scarred by a drop of sweat that fell from her brow. 

Reggie held her glare at her mom before, in an act of protest, rolling over so that she could stare at her wall. 

"Listen Regina I know that you went through something terrible." The mother paused, "at least it must've since I don't know what it is, but you can't just sit around all day. This isn't you, Reggie."

There was silence.

The mother had to muse the idea of wrestling her daughter out of bed. She didn't know how far that would get her. 

"Fine." It was so sudden Judy didn't realize Reggie had said it at first. "She's coming either way. I'll be here, I guess." 

Judy put on a smile, despite her daughter's gaze being elsewhere. "You'll have fun."

"I don't believe you." 

It was an hour later when a small girl, with blonde hair done up in a ponytail, walked up to the door of the Abbott household. 

She rang the doorbell. Before she could hear any steps coming from the other side of the door, she felt compelled to remove her hairband and straighten out her hair. She gripped and pulled it with both hands.

Judy Abbott was the one to open the door for her. "Hey Kendra."

Kendra quickly redid her ponytail. 

"Hey Mrs Abbott." The girl's voice cracked. She had a side bag. She pulled on the strap with both hands. Her glance move to the older lady's feet.

The woman blinked. This was a bit different. She remembered her boss's daughter being a bit more aloof then this, plus a heap more confident.

Maybe she was a bit nervous because this was the first time she've been to the house without her mother or maybe the girl was still ashamed about the incident with the turkey earrings. 

Either way Judy just shrugged, "Reggies in her room."

"I remember where it is." Kendra announced a bit louder then her greeting. 

The mother stopped her the second she began to march off, "Hey. Go easy on her. She's been a little down lately."

The blonde didn't look like she knew what to do with information. She scrunched up her brow for a second before simply nodding as if she didn't see any other option. 

Someone knocked on the door. Reggie didn't answer it. She didn't feel up to the task. She considered maybe telling whoever it was to come in. She went as far as huffing a puff of air into her lungs but honestly even that felt like too much work.

She figured that the situation would work itself out. 

There was another set of knock, a slight paused and then a squeak as the door opened. Reggie's door cracked opened and there was a set of eyes just looking at her. 

Reggie figured, as she eyed the intruder, that she was right in a way. The person was letting themselves in regardless of what she did. The pair of eyes opposite to her jolted as if they were caught doing something they weren't suppose to do. Strange, considering that the other girl was given permission to be here. The eyes vanished for a second before fingers dug through and slowly opened the door further. Eventually the guest allowed momentum to open it all away. 

"Hi." Kendra just stood there. One hand waved at her slightly. It didn't stray far from her body. Her other hand pulled on the strap of her bag. 

"Reggie." She said with a delay. It was to the point where she felt she had to correct herself. "Hi Reggie."

"Hi Reggie." She said once again, apparently feeling a strange need to really let the redhead know that she was greeting her. Kendra briefly brought her fingers to her brow. Her palm covered her eye. 

Reggie figured that she has to do something. Even something small. "Hey."

Kendra removed her hand and looked down at where she was standing and the invisible line that separated the hallway from the room. The girl breathed in, lifted a foot and breathed out. With a step she crossed it. 

"I like your room." She said.

Reggie had a brief memory of the girl giving the opposite impression. She didn't bother bringing up the contradiction. 

On the other hand she didn't have to. The girl seemed to flinch. Maybe she remembered the same moment. "Really I do." She defended herself. "I like your art." She gazed at the wall to wall pieces that were stung up on the wall. "I'm not good at drawing, but you're really creative."

“I’m not really good either.” Reggie admitted. It was difficult to tell if she was just being particularly hard on herself at that moment or if that was her honest opinion not marred by her usual optimism. 

“You are.” Kendra bursted. It was enough of a surprise to get a semblance of a reaction from the other girl. A lifting of Reggie’s hand from her face revealing a subtle widening of the eyes. “I mean.” The guest’s voice settled down low, “You’re a lot better than me at least.” It was the best defense that she could give. She admittedly was no expert. 

Reggie hand fell to her side and she just looked at Kendra for a moment. It was a solid one over as the blonde did the opposite. Her vision draped around the walls of room, avoiding no corner except for where the red head lofted on her bed. Her hands slide down the straps of the bag strung on her shoulder. 

Kendra breathed in and she pulled. 

"Hey.” Kendra finally allowed her eyes to meet Reggie’s. She lifted the weight of the bag from her shoulder to one hand before gently letting it sink to the floor. She bent down until she was sitting on her knees before she started to reach into the sack. “I was just thinking back to your earrings you gave me. I really like them by the way. I like, wear them all the time." She tissed her teeth and rolled her eyes. "That must sound so weird. I mean hello Kendra, it hasn't been Thanksgiving for forever. You can't wear turkeys everyday. It's just. They're great."

Kendra pulled on her strap, heaving the bag up and over her arm. 

Reggie sat. Her upper back slumped against the wall opposite the door even if she had to be careful not to fall down the small gap between said wall and bed. She just blinked as Kendra. 

There was a soft thud as the sack hit the floor. There was the chatter of a zipper being undone. 

The bag was filled with art supplies. Glue, clips, foam sheets and googly eyes. Kendra gently squeezed them out to one side. "I thought, since you said you made them, that maybe you could show me how?"

Kendra smiled an unsustainable smile. It was hard to maintain a facade of joy under the headlamp like gaze of the girl she came to see. Kendra had come to learn the art of crafts seemingly but Reggie didn't look compelled to help. Instead she was just staring at the supplied supplies as if they would spontaneously come together and make earrings happen. 

Kendra cringed, "Like you probably thinking ‘what does Kendra mean? Making earrings isn’t hard. Just cut some stuff out and glue them back.’" She pulled on her bag allowing more of cache to bleed out onto the carpet. She pinched some scissors. "I should probably like start on my own and if I need help I can ask." Kendra nodded as if she had formed some type of agreement with the stilled form of Reggie. 

A sheet of white foam was pulled. "Like this is nice and soft so I can make a bunny. Like for Easter. That's really soon." All she had to do was start imagining what she shape she wanted and start chopping away at the rest. There was the snap of the two blades as she turned the sheet at 90 degree angles. “Like this could be the head.” She suggested and she was about to pick up the next color, maybe to start making some eyes or a nose, but then she just gave the shape another look. It was a bit asympathical and lumpy. 

“Well bad example.” She doubled back, picking up the white sheet once more. She took the blades to them. The second attempt didn’t out much better than the first. Kendra played it off well enough with a tiny laugh, “I’m not the greatest with scissors I guess.” 

She made another cut. "Like this one is closer I think."

And another, "Like the nose will probably be easier after this. That's only going to be a triangle instead of whatever this turned out to be."

The whole time she was cutting, Reggie was just sitting there. At the very least she felt the heat in her cheeks rise as her embarrassment did. "I just have to be careful with this." She pretended to move a stray hair back from her forehead. She might've in reality have been wiping some sweat from her brow. "I must look like really stupid. Just cutting a way," Kendra considered herself, "and talking too much." 

Kendra straightened her back. She has been slouching. She didn't even notice before. "Just need to get this right."

"You don't have to." There was extra oomph on the 'have'. Kendra peered upwards at the girl sitting on her bed. Reggie wasn't speaking at her normal fast pace self, but she wasn't mute like she had been since the blonde girl entered her room. "It doesn't have to look like you want it to. It doesn't have to look like a bunny. It doesn’t have to look like anything.”

A stretching of the legs was all it took for Reggie to slide right of the edge of her bed. She made a grunt as her bottom hit the floor but she didn't whine at all after that. She just shuffled over to the pile that Kendra had before her. 

“I mean ya, you can try to go for something, but sometimes the best things are accidents. Like you don't know how you're going to feel about what you're making the entire time you're making it.” A hand floated above the discarded scraps from Kendra's failed art adventure. One cut was shoveled out. It was a decisively non-bunny shape. It was close to a simple oval. Kendra didn't know how it was one of her outcomes. It ranked -2 out of 10 on the hare scale. 

"Like we can use this." Reggir brought up the oval to the remainder of the white foam sheet and cut around it, producing a twin of the shape. "And then we can-" she trailed off, only making some hums and 'ums' under her breath as she cleaved through the other color sheets. She stopped only to occasionally scatter glue, ending with her sticking two hooks on the backsides. 

"Check it out." Reggie displayed them right next to her ears like they were diamonds. Two white oval with lines and shapes of blue, white and pink. "Easter egg earrings." 

Reggie had to quickly readjusted one of the shape as it started to slide down a bit off the glue. They weren't even dry, but Kendra still smiled at them. "I love them."

Reggie arched her wrist from her ears and presented the assembled accessories to the other girl, “You want them?” 

“You’re sure?” Kendra asked but she still laid out her palms to receive the sudden gift. “I still haven’t paid you back for the turkey earrings.” 

“Of course. We have like, enough stuff here to make like a dozen of these.” Reggie exclaimed before digging back into the pile of supplies. Kendra had the feeling that somehow her debt would only increase with the majority of the earrings going to her.

Kendra didn’t feel that much of a burden with the fact. She held that eggs earrings up to her ears much like Reggie had a moment before. She hoped to show off but Reggie was a bit into divining her next piece. Kendra gave the earrings another glance. “I don’t know how you do it. You’re really creative.” 

"My art teacher tells me that all the time." Reggie pulled on a sheet. She gave it a twirl as she gave the scissors an experimental snap in the air. "He's just saying that though."

"No. It's true. I don't think I could make something this good." An old pair of earrings were removed from Kendra’s ears to make way for the freshly crafted set. 

A raspberry was blown. "Come on. You know jewelry. I don't know all that stuff about diamonds and rubies and what else.” Reggie craved into the sheet. Her voice lowered a bit. She was almost grumbling. “Mom always giving me a hard time cause I don't know anything about fashion."

"I could help you with fashion.” There wasn’t a pause between Reggie’s confession and Kendra’s resulting outburst. The offer was forceful enough to give the red headed girl pause. It was a sudden enough development that Kendra felt the need to justify herself. “Since you're helping me. We could look at accessories. Maybe we can play with your hair.” Kendra pulled on her own ponytail as a demonstration. Hands ran through the strands and for some strange reason Kendra couldn’t look Reggie’s way. “Not that I think you need to do anything with your hair. I think your hair is very nice. You're very pretty."

Reggie blinked.

"Thanks.” There was a quick shrug. The rowdier of the girls laugh off the polite compliment as she pressed form onto a hook. Reggie held up another creation to her ears. “Look chicks.” 

A couple hours later Kendra was standing outside and Reggie was inside. The only thing between the two was the invisible barrier conferred by the front door’s arch. They ended up doing a sort of mirror act as both waved goodbye to one another. They both waved a bit longer than one normally would. It was as if they were testing the patience of Kendra’s mom who was sitting in her car. 

Even when there was a beep of the car horn Kendra hesitated slightly before pulling on the bag around her shoulder and spinning on her heels. She didn’t stop peering into the house until it was physically impossible for her neck to do so. 

Reggie didn’t stop looking outside until the car was out of slight. 

Reggie’s mother reached over her daughter and gently closed the door. She examined her daughter who squinted her eyes in confusion because of the sudden inspection. Judy smiled, "Looks like you're feeling better, Reggie."

"Huh really?" Reggie tilted her head. There was a sharp jab of a laugh. "It's not like I was dying mom. I was only annoyed for a little bit." 

There was an eye roll on both sides of the conversation. 

As the youngster skipped back to her room, the mom leaned against the door and watch her retreat. She smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I think that between shows like Adventure Time and Gravity Falls, that one thing the recent generations of cartoons has done well is showing that crushes don't always work out.


End file.
